Subject
Fw: Query: Duke Conmal and K.R.
From
Date
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Mary Bellino" <iambe@rcn.com>
>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (49
lines) ------------------
> Dear Brian and List,
>
> I knew I should have kept checking indexes instead of
> trolling various Romanov genealogy websites, one of which--I
> swear--makes you listen to "Lara's Theme" from Dr. Zhivago
> as the page loads. I would be wonderful if the hilarious PF
> line "he went for the first and only time to London, but . .
> .. could not understand the language" (C962) really happened
> to KR. As Chief of All Military Colleges as well as president
> of the Academy of Sciences (positions given him by Alexander
> III), he might well have visited England at some point. Such
> a story would no doubt have helped make KR a figure of fun
> for the Nabokov family.
>
> Mary
>
> "D. Barton Johnson" wrote:
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Brian Boyd (FOA ENG)" <b.boyd@auckland.ac.nz>
> > To: "'D. Barton Johnson '" <chtodel@cox.net>
> > Sent: Sunday, February 15, 2004 3:43 PM
> > Subject: RE: QUERY: PALE fIRE Query: Duke Conmal and K.R.
> >
> > Dear Mary and List,
> >
> > Yes, as I discuss in N's PF 81-82, insofar as Conmal has a model it is
> > definitely Grand Duke Konstantin Konstaninovich Romanov, the son of
> > Alexander II's younger brother Konstantin Nikolaevich. Peter
Zaionchkovsky,
> > in his time the foremost historian of Russian politics of that period
(which
> > was Dmitri Nikolaevich Nabokov's era as a minister), thought "K.R."'s
> > translation of Shakespeare "fairly good," but Nabokov's own attitude to
KR
> > is clear in "The Admiralty Spire": "That upper-class milieu-the
fashionable
> > set, if you will-to which Katya had belonged, had backward tastes, to
put it
> > mildly. Chekhov was considered an 'impressionist,' the society rhymester
> > Grand Duke Constantine a major poet. . . '" (Stories of VN 347). In SM,
he
> > decries as the "worst of all" the weaknesses in his own first poem "the
> > shameful gleanings from Apuhtin's and Grand Duke Konstantin's lyrics of
the
> > tsïganski type" (ch XI:5, p. 225). I don't think VN's rating of KR as
> > translator has ever been recorded, but it is likely if anything to be
have
> > been harsher than his judgments of him as poet.
> >
> > Though I note the "con mal" pun, I had no idea of those details of KR's
life
> > that Mary has discovered. It seems highly likely that VN would have
known
> > the gossip about KR (as a poet, he seems to have been the subject of
Nabokov
> > family fun) through his father and through his grandfather's close
> > connection with Alexander II and Alexander III.
> >
> > BB
From: "Mary Bellino" <iambe@rcn.com>
>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (49
lines) ------------------
> Dear Brian and List,
>
> I knew I should have kept checking indexes instead of
> trolling various Romanov genealogy websites, one of which--I
> swear--makes you listen to "Lara's Theme" from Dr. Zhivago
> as the page loads. I would be wonderful if the hilarious PF
> line "he went for the first and only time to London, but . .
> .. could not understand the language" (C962) really happened
> to KR. As Chief of All Military Colleges as well as president
> of the Academy of Sciences (positions given him by Alexander
> III), he might well have visited England at some point. Such
> a story would no doubt have helped make KR a figure of fun
> for the Nabokov family.
>
> Mary
>
> "D. Barton Johnson" wrote:
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Brian Boyd (FOA ENG)" <b.boyd@auckland.ac.nz>
> > To: "'D. Barton Johnson '" <chtodel@cox.net>
> > Sent: Sunday, February 15, 2004 3:43 PM
> > Subject: RE: QUERY: PALE fIRE Query: Duke Conmal and K.R.
> >
> > Dear Mary and List,
> >
> > Yes, as I discuss in N's PF 81-82, insofar as Conmal has a model it is
> > definitely Grand Duke Konstantin Konstaninovich Romanov, the son of
> > Alexander II's younger brother Konstantin Nikolaevich. Peter
Zaionchkovsky,
> > in his time the foremost historian of Russian politics of that period
(which
> > was Dmitri Nikolaevich Nabokov's era as a minister), thought "K.R."'s
> > translation of Shakespeare "fairly good," but Nabokov's own attitude to
KR
> > is clear in "The Admiralty Spire": "That upper-class milieu-the
fashionable
> > set, if you will-to which Katya had belonged, had backward tastes, to
put it
> > mildly. Chekhov was considered an 'impressionist,' the society rhymester
> > Grand Duke Constantine a major poet. . . '" (Stories of VN 347). In SM,
he
> > decries as the "worst of all" the weaknesses in his own first poem "the
> > shameful gleanings from Apuhtin's and Grand Duke Konstantin's lyrics of
the
> > tsïganski type" (ch XI:5, p. 225). I don't think VN's rating of KR as
> > translator has ever been recorded, but it is likely if anything to be
have
> > been harsher than his judgments of him as poet.
> >
> > Though I note the "con mal" pun, I had no idea of those details of KR's
life
> > that Mary has discovered. It seems highly likely that VN would have
known
> > the gossip about KR (as a poet, he seems to have been the subject of
Nabokov
> > family fun) through his father and through his grandfather's close
> > connection with Alexander II and Alexander III.
> >
> > BB